Ridgecrest’s Oversight Board to the city’s Redevelopment Agency Successor Agency (RRSA) is holding a public hearing Monday to review the agency’s non-housing due diligence report.

At the heart of the matter is determining how much of the RRSA’s non-housing assets need to turned over to the Kern County auditor-controller’s office.

Oversight Board Chair Dan Clark could not be reached for comment on the nature of the report.

The due diligence report process is required by the State Department of Finance under Assembly Bill 1484 in the wake of the dissolution of California’s redevelopment agencies in February of this year.

The successor agency, Ridgecrest in this case, is required to hire an independent county-approved accountant to review all its non-housing assets and submit a report of its findings.

The report must be submitted to the DOF, the Oversight Board and Kern County’s auditor-controller for review no later than Dec. 15, and the Oversight Board must approve it no later than Jan. 15, 2012.

A second meeting to accept the results is scheduled for Dec. 13.

The DOF has until April 1, 2013 to comment on the findings and determine whether the report is acceptable. If the state objects or modifies the listing, the city has five days to schedule a “meet and confer” session to defend the assets it deems are obligated.

The Oversight Board approved Irvine-based accounting firm Pun & McGeady to carry out the review of the successor agency’s assets between January 2011 and June 2012, in part to determine if they were reasonably managed and to determine what assets are classified as unobligated.

The Oversight Board held its public meetings for all low-income housing assets in October.

Under AB 1484, which was passed June 27, any assets deemed unobligated are required to be turned over to the county auditor-controller to be disbursed to any taxing agency (school, state, special districts).

The entire process follows in the aftermath of the state’s move to dismantle all RDAs, long a cash cow for redevelopment, housing and infrastructure projects.

With the dissolution, Ridgecrest, like all other cities, is required to sell off or transfer control of all RDA-funded assets that are not housing or governmental in nature.

In recent weeks, several cities have come up against the state seeking to take control of certain assets funded by its RDAs.

Santa Barbara stands to lose a parking lot, land earmarked for developing a children’s museum.

The state is also eyeing many Fresno properties such as the Central Valley city’s downtown baseball field.

AB 1484 has come under fire from many organizations across the state because it is considered to hold many “claw-back” sections that would further deprive cities of local funding.

Page 2 of 2 - The League of California Cities, which Ridgecrest is a member, went so far as to file a lawsuit on Sept. 24 that challenged the bill’s legality.

However, Mayor Pro Tem Chip Holloway said it was unlikely Ridgecrest would have the same problem other cities faced.

"At this point we (the city) feel we have a very good working relationship with DOF and we have kept our ROPS very clean, which I think they appreciate in light of some of the fights going on in other cities," Holloway said. "I feel very comfortable we will get through this fairly intact."

The Oversight Board’s public hearing is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 3 at 6 p.m. in City Hall’s city council chambers.